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Sky Deutschland Pushing Capital Hike to February

FRANKFURT--Sky Deutschland AG (SKYD.XE) is pushing the second step of its planned capital increase from Sept. 30 of this year to Feb. 1, 2013, to hit markets at an opportune moment, the company's chief financial officer said Tuesday. "From a liquidity perspective, there's no problem pushing the capital hike to February," CFO Steven Tomsic said on a call with journalists, adding he views the window between the summer holidays and the original planned date of Sept. 30 as tight. The German pay-TV company said it will definitely carry out the second part of the capital increase, which is earmarked to raise 144.2 million euros ($177.5 million). It had announced in February this year that it would raise EUR300 million by Sept. 30, and raised EUR155.8 million later that month in a first step. It used the proceeds to repay loans. Earlier Tuesday, the company backed its guidance for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, in 2012 to be "significantly better" than Ebitda in 2011, although the CEO said during the call the company will still make a loss this year on an Ebitda basis. The company expects Ebitda to be positive on a full-year basis in 2013. When asked when Sky Deutschland expects to report a positive net profit, the CEO said he expects full profitability "not that far after" 2013. At 0714 GMT, Sky Deutschland shares traded 2% higher at EUR2.84 while the MDAX index traded up 0.4%. Write to Harriet Torry at harriet.torry@dowjones.com Order free Annual Report for News Corp. Visit http://djnweurope.ar.wilink.com/?ticker=US65248E1047 or call +44 (0)208 391 6028 Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires